Mitchell Blair
What has been a first month of the CFL season to remember for the Saskatchewan Roughriders will come to an end on Saturday after the team finishes a home and home set against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats when the two teams meet in Hamilton’s adopted home of Guelph. As they get set for a return matchup against a team they beat 37-0 last Sunday, the numbers they are putting up on offence are staggering,
The Riders lead the CFL in points with 151, they lead the league in first downs with 99, they lead the league in total yards per game with 421 while Darian Durant and Kory Sheets are having tremendous individual beginnings with Durant throwing for 12 touchdowns and no interceptions and Sheets running for 572 yards which is the best four game start for any running back in CFL history.
A lot of credit is going with good reason to offensive coordinator George Cortez who is no stranger to being the mastermind of successful offences in the past, but ask the Riders quarterback what the early success can be attributed to and he won’t hesitate in answering.
“The o-line needs to get a lot of credit,” Durant said. “They are playing at a high level and they are keeping me clean. They allow me to sit back and go through my reads and find guys downfield. They make it easy for me to just pull the trigger or for Kory to find the holes.”
Second year offensive lineman Ben Heenan is very happy with the way his unit has played over the first four weeks, but he is more than aware that teams are trying to find a weakness and slow down a group of 12 that is seemingly unstoppable at this moment.
“We’ve been playing to the best of our abilities and making life easier for Darian, “Heenan said. “ We keep looking to improve though and we know defences are going through film trying to find ways to get past us and to stop Kory. We just have to keep answering that bell.”
With Sheets launching an early season assault on the CFL record book, Heenan says it’s been a lot of fun doing what they do to create some space for him.
“O-linemen love to run block and when you have a guy like Kory back there doing what he can, he makes us look good even if we make a mistake. The first few weeks have been outstanding for him and we certainly hope we can keep creating the holes for him so that our offence doesn’t slow down any.”
Brendon Labatte echoes the sentiments of Heenan when it comes to creating space for Sheets.
“I think one of our strengths has been our communication, “Labatte explained. “Everyone knows when we get to the line what the call is going to be and we’ve been able to adjust pretty well to guys moving around on the other side as to what we are going to do. Kory has made us look good at times too by making something out of nothing as well, but in the end, it’s a collective effort to make sure that run game is effective and when it is, it makes our passing game better too.
The passing game was expected to be a strength in 2013 because of the receiving talent surrounding Durant and four games into the season, it has perhaps been a bigger strength than first thought because of the contributions of Taj Smith and to a lesser extent Scott McHenry who have both made big plays to go alongside the usual playmakers like Weston Dressler, Chris Getzlaf and Rob Bagg. Durant, who was named the CFL’s offensive player of the week for his four touchdown effort against the Ti-Cats, says it’s an offense that must give defensive co-ordinators nightmares when it comes to what they have and what Cortez has in his playbook for them to utilize.
“Its pick your poison,” Durant said. “Nobody knows who’s next because we have so many guys that can make plays and you can’t forget Kory as well or Jock Sanders. If you want to key on Weston or Getz, then we have other guys that can hurt you. Hamilton tried to stop the run on Sunday and that meant some extra space for Robbie and we managed to connect with him by going deep. You have guys coming at you from all angles so defences don’t know where you are coming from and now Geroy (Simon) is in that mix so it just gets better.
While the offence has done what it has wanted in the first four games, the defence has also been able for the most part to shut down the opposition as evidenced by last week’s shutout. They also lead the league in many categories including fewest points allowed and most interceptions. Linebacker Rey Williams is quick to give a lot of credit to head coach Corey Chamblin for not only the play of the “D”, but the entire team.
“Coach Chamblin is doing a great job of getting everyone to buy in and take it one week at a time and one play at a time. We are coming in here every single week acting as if we haven’t won a game and that keeps us hungry.” Williams said. “We are on ourselves every day in practice to just keep pushing and every day someone else emerges as a leader. Coach C and Brendan Taman did a great job in building this team and you are seeing what we can do when we are at a high level.”
While the season is not yet a third over, all things Rider are running at peak efficiency right now and there is no indication that that will change anytime soon. The team hopes to keep that high going Saturday in a game that starts at 5:30 Saskatchewan time.
